The child actor Ken Osmond was cast as Tommy. He was cast as The Comanche Kid in "Gallows at Granite Gap" (November 8, 1957), with Virginia Gregg as Martha Naylor and Stuart Randall, later a recurring character with Smith on Laramie, as Sheriff Mort Cory. Smith appeared twice on the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Colt. He was cast as Private Reynolds that year in the picture Tomahawk Trail, starring Chuck Connors. In 1957, Smith starred with Fay Spain as a young prizefighter, Tommy Kelly, in the film The Crooked Circle. He appeared as David in the 1956 episode "Cholera" of CBS's Gunsmoke. He was further cast in 1956 as Steve Maguire in the episode "The Singing Preacher", with Dick Foran in the lead role, on the religion anthology series, Crossroads. That same year, he was the lead guest in "The Story of Lucky Swanson" on CBS's fantasy drama, The Millionaire, and as a character called "Utah" on Father Knows Best, the Robert Young situation comedy. That same year, he appeared as Wesley Mason in another film, Rebel in Town, starring John Payne. He appeared as Thursday October Christian in another film, The Women of Pitcairn Island. He was Jeff Northrup in another 1956 film, Hot Rod Girl. In 1956, Smith had a small role as Caleb Cope in the film Friendly Persuasion, starring Gary Cooper. Sontag and Evans turn to crime to fight the encroachment of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The episode is entitled "Sontag and Evans," referring to Sontag's older partner in crime, Chris Evans, played by Morris Ankrum.
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Smith guest-starred in 1955 in the role of John Sontag in the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, the first western series to win an Emmy Award. That same year, he played the part of Willie McGill or the "Colfax Kid" in the episode "Paper Gunman" of NBC's anthology series Frontier, hosted and narrated by Walter Coy. In 1955, Smith played the part of James Earp, older brother of Wyatt Earp in the film Wichita, starring Joel McCrea and Vera Miles. In 1954, Smith appeared as the newlywed Milo Buck, opposite Karen Sharpe as Nell Buck, in the Academy Award-winning airplane disaster film, The High and the Mighty, starring and produced by John Wayne. He was renamed by his agent Henry Willson in contrast to the more exciting names of Willson's other clients as he was "the only John Smith in the business". Acting career, 1950-1963īy 1950, he was working as a messenger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in 1952, the studio cast him as James Stewart's brother in Carbine Williams, although the part was uncredited. In the early 1940s, Smith joined the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir and appeared in several films, including Bing Crosby's Going My Way and The Bells of St. He sang with a dance band and played football and basketball and engaged in gymnastics during his school years. Robert Errol Van Orden, as he was named at birth, graduated from Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles and enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles. “If in my day actors had the agreements regarding reruns that they have today,” Lamparski quoted him in the 1980s, “I’d be calling myself ‘retired’ instead of merely ‘out of work.A descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Netherland in the 17th century, Smith was born in Los Angeles, California, to Errol and Margaret Van Orden.
Smith’s career pretty much died out after that, although he occasionally found work doing voice-overs. Smith’s final feature film was “Waco” in 1966 with Jane Russell and Howard Keel. Hollywood already had plenty of “Vans,” he added, citing Van Johnson, Van Heflin, Mamie Van Doren and Bobbie Van. “Yes, just plain John Smith,” the actor assured him. “You mean you’ve got a good name like Robert Earl Van Orden, and you want to take a common name like John Smith?” the astounded judge asked. Willson even went along when the young man went to court to adopt the name officially.
It was Willson who suggested the simple name “John Smith” for the actor. When he dropped by MGM to visit friends, however, he met Henry Willson, an agent with a well-documented track record of finding-and naming-new talent, including Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and Lana Turner. Although he was cast as James Stewart’s younger brother in “Carbine Williams” in 1952, he figured that outing was a fluke and went on to sell silverware and china. But Smith’s first real job was as a messenger at MGM.
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